5 Must-Have Features to Look For In a Performance Management System

The performance management process involves a lot of moving parts, so you must have a system in place to help streamline the process. A performance management system (PMS) can help you manage the different aspects of performance management and ensure that your employees are getting the feedback they need to be successful.

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Performance Management System features

When choosing a performance management system, it is important to consider the most relevant features to your goals. However, most of the systems being sold today are fairly similar in basic functionality and should be relatively easy to implement. Most PMSs include:

1.Instant Feedback

Conventional performance evaluation systems involve annual reviews and waiting for results. It’s too slow and doesn’t reflect reality in today’s fast-moving world. With instant feedback, performance is assessed in real-time, so you can respond immediately to problems or praise achievements. You can also coach employees to improve their skills.

2.Goal Setting

Goals should be specific, measurable (so you know when they’re achieved), achievable (so employees don’t feel overwhelmed), realistic and timely (so there’s a deadline for achieving them). Performance management software lets you set goals for teams or individuals and monitor progress against them. It also allows you to see which goals are being achieved or which ones need to be re-evaluated. The best systems support OKRs – objectives and key results – a goal-setting framework developed by Google that makes it easy to track progress against quantifiable targets.

3.360-Degree Feedback

Ask managers and peers to rate employees on key competencies like teamwork, communication, or leadership. And encourage employees to do the same – ask them to rate their manager’s ability to lead a team or communicate effectively with their employees. This exercise will give you valuable insights and help employees understand how others perceive their behavior and performance.

4.Self-Assessment

Let employees assess themselves and take ownership of their own development goals. It will be useful from a development perspective and an engagement perspective. Employees who know what they want from their careers find it easier to align themselves with organizational goals and contribute more effectively toward business results.

5.Reporting and Analytics

A Good performance management software must give you access to real-time data, reports, dashboards, and analytics to help you make informed decisions about your people. It should also support tracking of progress against goals so that you can identify areas where intervention is required.

Once you have collected data on employee performance, you can then analyze how different factors might be contributing to your results. For example, if an employee has recently received training, he might outperform his colleagues who have not received the same training. As a result, you might decide to roll out that training program more widely or improve it based on feedback from the employee or other employees who have attended it.

Summary

There are many more features that a performance management system could include to better the employee life cycle. Each feature is critical to the success of your employees and your organization because it can help employees acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses while receiving feedback on how they could improve. Choosing a PRMS that includes as many of these features as possible can only benefit your organization by allowing you to retain top talent, drive organizational change, and develop leaders effectively.